Deranged Flowers
by Zelosahiko
Summary: When Emi and Rage invited Alice to visit the Guertena's art gallery after a day in the arcade, little did Alice know everything will be turned upside down. Based on the game Ib with DDR characters. AU, AR. Rated T for safety. There'll be Ib characters cameos.
1. Chapter 1 - Enter The World

_**Deranged Flowers**_

_**A DDR x Ib Crossover Fanfiction**_

_**By Zelosahiko**_

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**A/N: Hello! Zelosahiko is here! As I promised, here's my promised crossover fanfiction. I decided I'd keep the fandom alive with my… amateur-ish story. I apologize for any mistakes, but I'd be glad if you read it and love it! Oh, let me remind you that this fanfic is totally AR and AU. Paragraphs with bold and italic like **_**this **_**are flashbacks/past events. With those notices finished, let's head on to the story!**

**Disclaimer: Ib belongs to Kouri, DDR and its characters belongs to Konami.**

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**Chapter 1 – Enter The World**

"_**Hah… That was tiring," Alice said as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with her handkerchief after beating a rather tough challenge course on DDR. She stepped down from the metal pad accompanied with Emi and Rage applauding to her.**_

"_**That was awesome, Alice!" Emi commented on her AA rank which was showed on the cabinet's screen with her trademark cheerful smile.**_

"_**It took you a while to complete that monstrous course, eh, Alice? But I'm glad that was worth it!" Rage inquired with his cheeky grin.**_

"_**Umm… Do you mind if I ask you something…?" Alice asked nervously. She twitched her fingers and looked down. She surely didn't want to disturb the lovebirds' activity.**_

"_**Ask away!" Emi replied kindly. She seemed to notice the blue haired pop singer's nervousness for certain. She patted her best friend's shoulder after she stood next to her with a genuine smile, "No need to be nervous, Alice."**_

"_**Y-You see, I… I have free time for today, then that means I don't have to work. B-But I'm confused. I don't know how I should spend my free time wisely… I-I—"**_

"_**Ah, you can come with us! We're going to visit a new art gallery coming to New York!" Emi tried to clear her doubts.**_

"_**Yeah! I'm not the one who is usually fond of arts and all, but I heard Guertena's arts are fantastic! That's why I'm willing to come!" Rage said to her.**_

"_**Huh? I don't want to disturb your date—"**_

"_**It's not even a date, Alice! Just come with us already! I'm sure you will be amazed!" Emi stopped Alice from saying anything regarding her relationship with Rage further. But her words were true. Judging from the gallery's pamphlet, she was certain the exhibition would be breathtaking and that is why she persuaded her friends to come, but sadly, Rage was the only person who accepted Emi's invitation.**_

"_**O-Okay, I'll come," Alice replied slowly after nodding her head slightly.**_

"_**That's the spirit!" Rage cheered on her and pestered her to walk with them to Guertena's exhibition alongside Emi. They surely didn't want to miss the chance of appreciating such beautiful art.**_

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And that is how they successfully talked Alice into going Guertena's gallery exhibition with them. Upon arriving at the aforementioned gallery building, Alice was taken aback. She surely didn't expect the architecture would be this majestic yet elegant. She could see several banners around the seemingly mysterious exterior promoting Guertena's masterpieces.

"Err… Do you know who Guertena is?" Alice started a conversation by asking her two friends a question. Both of them started thinking as hard as they could, but they could only come up with a short answer.

"From what I heard, he's a famous Italian artist. At least, if my memory serves me correctly," Emi then chuckled nervously after answering Alice's question and she scratched her head a little. Regardless, the three of them went into the gallery. Soon, Alice knew her friends were right. They were greeted by a professional looking doorman, and a kind receptionist.

"Ah, this building itself seems like a masterpiece too for me."

"I know, right, Alice? I'm sure you'll like it! After all, Guertena doesn't only have great paintings. He's also a good sculptor! I heard his creations were based on many emotions of human. But some of my friends who are into arts said that his portrait weren't based on real people! Well, not all of them…"

"Wow, you surely know your stuff from your friends, Emi."

"Hey, we better get some pamphlets as well! We might want to come here sooner with more of our friends!" Rage told them enthusiastically. Emi gasped in glee and she instantly agreed with Rage. With that, Emi picked up several pamphlets which was laid on the top of the receptionist's desk and ordered neatly. The long haired shy girl only watched them from afar, not knowing what to do.

"Oh, Alice. If you want to explore the gallery further, just go right ahead. We'll catch up while we handle the admission ticket paying," Emi notified her.

"Won't it burden you and Rage?"

"No worries! You need to take a break from the showbiz in a while, Alice! Just explore to your heart's contents! We're paying!" Rage told her, and despite still feeling somewhat guilty for them, Alice obeyed both of her friends' words and went further into the art gallery.

"I have to say this is such a true masterpiece," Alice mumbled in admiration as she observed a painting. The painting was entitled Worry. Although the painting unsettled her a little, she still likes it. She then turned around and saw more of Guertena's arts, particularly the sculptures. Every step she walked, her azure long hair fluttered in joy since this was her first time visiting an art gallery.

And to top it all, the gallery was amazing for her. She was truly amazed and bewitched by Guertena's masterpieces' charm. For her, the charm seemed mysterious. She ventured deeper and deeper into a gallery until she reached a long, empty hall. The hall itself wasn't fully empty since it has a big mural displayed on its wall. The idea about this hall doesn't have anyone excluding Alice in front of the abstract mural was weird.

She turned around to see the dark-themed mural entitled Fabricated World. This was the biggest painting she had ever seen so far in this gallery. As soon as she touched the title plate after observing the mural with amazement, the gallery's lights went out.

The young idol gasped in fear and shock as she tried to look around in vain. Now, she was only by herself in the pitch black gallery. Her instinct told her to run away and she did what her instinct said. As she kept running away, she heard several creepy noises. First was the sound of pouring rain, then followed by the sound of a man coughing loudly. In some cases whenever she passed in front of the windows, she'd always see a black silhouette either banging loudly on the window or passing by, giving Alice a cold yet sinister smile.

Alice Ip was truly frightened now. She screamed her friends' name in agony, hoping Emi and Rage would answer her, but it was useless. She was trapped now. As the blue haired lass passed in front of the Worry painting she had taken a liking to, the eyes squinted at her and stared back at her. Even though she had run out of breath, she wanted to run away. She wanted to escape from this darkness.

That is, until she reached the Abyss of The Deep painting.

She didn't have time to observe the painting during the first time she entered the gallery. Truth to be told, she found the anglerfish on the painting almost surprisingly realistic and it surprised her a little. Its hollow eyes were staring at her blue orbs which scared her a little. Suddenly, she heard a voice ringing in her mind. It sounded sinister, which Alice disliked.

"_Come, Alice. I'll show you someplace secret~"_

It seemed like the anglerfish which unsettled her off taunted her. She just hoped everything went back to normal and it was all just a nightmare she'd been experiencing during her sleep. She took several steps closer into the painting. What surprised her wasn't the realistic color blue which rinsed her legs in water but the water's depth. She sunk in deeper and deeper, until she couldn't manage to inhale fresh air anymore. As her azure irises closed down, she was drifted to a deranged, new world.

Now, she was in the darker version of the gallery which was painted similarly to the one in the mural she just saw. When Alice was still unconscious, a pair of bright bloody red eyes observed her lying down on the dark black floor from afar.

"_Welcome to the Fabricated World, Alice Ip…"_

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**Yep! I think that's all for now! FYI, in this story, all DDR characters are wearing their X outfits. Well… I guess several characters from Ib will make appearance in this story. The main pairing of this story will be introduced later, but I will not reveal if they will appear in the 2****nd**** chapter or not. Just for you to know, I know this is an AR and AU story, but, this story takes place after the Ib All Alone ending. Anyways, both reviews and flames are accepted!**


	2. Chapter 2 - White Rose's Terror

_**Deranged Flowers**_

_**A DDR x Ib Crossover Fanfiction**_

_**By Zelosahiko**_

**A/N: Hi! We meet again! Sorry for the late update since school is getting on my way, plus I had to replay Ib from the beginning for this story's sake. Because of that, I will probably update this fanfiction on regular monthly basis. And also, I'd really like to thank Papersak for following my story and the anon Otoha Mitsugi for the great review! Shall we continue, then?**

**Disclaimers: Ib and every of its properties is Kouri's, DDR and its characters are Konami's. Henceforth, none of them belong to me.**

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**Chapter 2 – The White Rose's Terror**

Her blue orbs fluttered open as she was taken to the whole new, twisted world, which could be considered as the deepest heart of this gallery. She sat up and shook her head to make her blurry vision go away. The first thing she did was to look around the dark themed gallery. She observed her surroundings only to find a hallway endorsed in dark violet. She sat in front of a staircase that she did not know where it led to.

After regaining her full consciousness, she stood up and walked around the strange gallery. The very first things she encountered were two paintings, each located on the left and the right side next to the stairs. The painting on the left was dominated by red, while the other was full of blue. When she was still busy looking at the two paintings, she suddenly felt uneasy. It was as if someone had been watching her from the moment she hadn't opened her eyes.

The feeling gave Alice chills running down her spine, thus resulting her limbs trembling like there was no tomorrow. Even time was something foreign and unknown to this gallery. The small red orbs were still watching her. She turned around to look for the cause—the one who had been looking at her.

She found nothing. The bloody red orbs had gone away, as if they had never existed. Alice didn't know how she should react now. The young celebrity could only let out a sigh of relief, and that was when she decided to venture around the dark gallery, hoping that she could meet her friends, or even better, find an escape to this lunatic world.

Alice noticed there were two pathways. One led her to the right, and one led her to the other side. This got Alice for a while, but she trusted her timid instinct. She slowly walked to the right and the blue-haired girl was welcomed with a plain long hallway. She hoped the path she chose was the right one, even though without anything to appear, she already felt scared because the hallway was already just like that. For every step she took, Alice felt somebody would attack her right here and right now, especially with all of the small writings in blue that said 'come' on the wall.

It took her a while, but she finally reached the end of the hallway. There, she found a small wooden table with a crystal vase sitting on the top of it. Her orbs spotted a white rose inside the vase. From the moment she set her eyes on the said rose, she was struck with awe.

"My, this rose seems too beautiful to be real," she muttered.

With no more hesitation, she took the white rose which had eight petals and after that, she saw a door which was behind the table with the vase. At first, she thought it was impossible for her to open it because she guessed she won't be able to push that table away. As a result, Alice turned around and left that hallway.

A new twisted surprise awaited her.

She was shocked to see the wall she had encountered beforehand was full of crayon writing which looked like only a child or deranged adult who could do that. The handwriting set Alice's fear ablaze. She knew they were just a mere handwriting, but it felt like as if the writing was screaming inside Alice's mind, blaming her for taking the white rose. All of the writing said 'THIEF'.

"_You're a thief! You're a thief! YOU'RE A SICK THIEF!"_

She quickly ran away, wishing the screaming and the terror would cease right away. But when she got back to the blue and red paintings, she was both scared and shocked to see the staircase had vanished. She could safely assume that starting from now, there was no escape. Then, she chose the left path. The left path contained nothing too scary. There was only a simple painting of a fish and another blue door just like Alice had encountered before. She approached the door, but it was locked.

"Looks like I need to find the key… I wonder where it is, though," she said to herself.

She didn't want to do this again, but she had to go back to the right hallway which had the accusing handwritings. She stepped away from the door and went back to the corridor with the vase.

She reached the end of the corridor, but the small table was still on her way to the door. Alice tried moving the table. Much to her shock, she could actually do it.

"I guess I have to stop being so pessimistic," she murmured under her breath and pushed the table aside adamantly.

After that, she opened the blue door only to find a small room in it. The room only had a painting of a smiling lady who had tanned skin and straight long black hair. Below it was a note and a pretty small blue key with detailed design. Alice decided to read the small note first.

_When the rose wilts away, so too will you wilt away…_

She gulped after finished reading it. She couldn't understand the full meaning of it, but still, that sounded scary to her. She ignored the note and picked up the small key instead, before she stuffed it into her skirt's pocket. Suddenly, something from inside her shocked her a little, urging her to look behind her. A small squeak escaped from her lips as she witnessed the tanned woman on the painting's gentle demeanor to a total psycho. She looked like she was ready to jump out from the painting to murder Alice brutally.

The seventeen year old girl quickly retreated from the room, although she was actually tired of everything in this crazy world. She went back to the hallway on the left and approached the door with fear consuming her mind and feeling. She used the key she had taken before, and just as she expected, the door swung open.

Unlike the first room where it was full of dark purple, this time Alice was welcomed by the color green surrounding the room, and a line of insect paintings which looked very realistic. On the right side, she saw a painting of a ladybug, a bee, a butterfly, and a spider. The Chinese lass observed all of them and she was totally surprised about Guertena's artistic skill.

"He must be a very talented artist, yes? How could he paint these insects realistically?" Alice wondered to herself. And then, she reached the other side of the hallway where there are four simple paintings with white as their background colors. Each of them are named from chronologic order of stories, respectively.

Alice admired all of the paintings as she kept on walking until she met a green door. The door was not locked, so it was easy for her to enter. But what was inside that room hindered her journey because in the middle of the room, there was a large gap which would be risky to step on. She deduced that the hole could not be passed unless there was something else she could use as a bridge.

She quickly went out and passed each of the paintings. When she walked in front of the ladybug painting, she saw something small walking near her, and she decided to see what it was. It was just a normal ant, but it could talk.

"I'm an ant! My painting is especially the coolest!"

"You can talk?" Alice asked the ant with surprise after followed by a gasp.

"Yeah! I'd like to see my painting, but it's so far away..."

Alice chuckled a little about the ant's narcissistic remark about his own painting. She let the ant walked around to see his insect friends on the painting. That was when Alice saw another notice on the beginning of the other path on the left.

"Beware of edges?" She read the note out loud.

She couldn't comprehend its meaning, but she decided to pass anyways. She screamed a little when a dark, shadowy hand tried to grab her from the edge of the wall. Now, she completely understood the notice's meaning. She moved a little more so she was walking on the center of the floor, keeping herself as far as she could from the wall.

Another hand appeared followed by a scary groan, but Alice had tried her best to keep herself strong. When she had almost reached the end of the hallways of ends, two hands appeared at the same time from the walls near her. The space was narrow now, but Alice made it. She found another green door and a painting of an ant. The door was locked, so Alice inspected the ant painting instead.

"Hm? This can be taken off the wall."

She slightly hesitated before she touched the ant painting. But she quickly took off the painting and brought it with her to the room with large hole on its floor. On her way, she met the ant again, but it didn't sound like a narcissist would like the last time she talked to it.

"Huh? Where did my painting go?"

Deep inside her heart, Alice felt sorry for the little ant, but she should march on if she wanted to escape. She passed the four paintings which were named from the order of chapters, and she finally saw the door. She entered and the big hole was still there. The girl put the ant painting on the hole, and used it as a bridge.

When Alice stepped on the ant painting, a red fluid which she assumed was paint seeped out of the ant's body on the painting. She stared at it wide-eyed, and she was surely shocked with what had just happened. She muttered the word 'sorry' under her breath for several times when passing the hole. She finally reached the end of the room, and she found another door.

The next room behind the new door was empty, save for the small green key on the floor and a black headless statue with red knee-length dress standing on the edge of the room. She squatted and picked up the green key. When she stood up to stuff the key into her pocket, the statue suddenly walked by itself. Alice gulped her saliva then took a step back, but the statue adamantly approached Alice again.

She ran away quickly from the statue to escape, but the headless mannequin kept on chasing her as fast as it could to prevent Alice from escaping. The shy dancer kept running away, although she almost ran out of breath. She encountered the large hole again, and without thinking twice, she stepped on the painting and it made another brand new large gap on it, rendering the bridge impossible to pass. She left the room to make it to the other side, which meant she must pass the hands again. She sighed in defeat and walked to the locked door, ignoring the little ant. As soon as she arrived in front of the green door, she used the key and finally opened the door.

Upon entering the new room, she saw a portal—or rather a door that looked like a cat's head. The eyes unsettled her off a bit, and there was a fish-shaped hole acting as the cat's nose and the key. She approached the hole and observed it thoroughly.

"Time to find another key, I think…"

She stepped back only to find two pathways, each on the left and right side. First, she took the left side and many paintings on each pillars in that room welcomed her. All of the paintings which were hung on the pillar were covered by red curtains, except for the painting of a black stickman which was shown.

"Huh? What's this yellow liquid?"

_Play hide and seek?_

After she read that writing, she noticed all of the covered paintings have small yellow button under it, including the opened curtain beforehand which had closed by now. Alice slowly walked around the pillars to look for the small man, holding her white rose's stalk tightly. She kept on walking until she found a pillar that she deemed the man might be there.

The button flashed rapidly from yellow to green, asking Alice to press it to reveal what was behind the curtain. She slowly reached out the button to press it, and…

What could possibly happen now?

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**A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger! Now, will Alice lose a petal of her rose or not? Stay tuned in chapter 3! I'm also sorry for every mistake I made in this story, and how I really suck at writing descriptions in English. Well… English isn't my mother language, so, yeah… But still, I'll try my best to write in appropriate grammar and vocabulary! And I truly apologize that I still can't introduce the main pairing now, but I'll do that in chapter 3 or 4, perhaps. Oh yes, and if you notice, I changed the genre to Horror/Romance because I feel the story will just be like that.**

**Ah yes, I have another surprise upcoming in the next chapter! You better cross your fingers for now. I'd be grateful if you could take a moment to review this fanfic! I hope you like this chapter! By the way, you can always talk to me via Tumblr (link is in my profile) or PM. Do not worry! I won't bite you, only if you're friendly to me :3**

**~Zelosahiko**


	3. Chapter 3 - Black Rose's Beginning

_**Deranged Flowers**_

_**A DDR x Ib Crossover Fanfiction**_

_**By Zelosahiko  
**_

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**A/N: Whew! I finally get to update this fanfic once more after replaying Ib and dealing with excessive school assignments. There's nothing much I can say for now, so I hope you like this chapter! As I promised, the surprise is present now!**

**Disclaimer: Konami owns DDR, and Kouri owns Ib. I own nothing.**

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**Chapter 3 - Black Rose's Beginning**

The idol's hand reached out to the flashing button and she slowly pressed it, although uncertainty ensued. The red curtain revealed what was behind it: a painting of a bloody scythe. Alice sighed in disappointment after doing so, but what happened next traumatized her more than she could imagine. The bloody big scythe in the painting slowly came to life, as if it wanted to take the young idol's life. It quickly approached Alice, who was currently struck with fear, and slashed Alice's white rose.

A petal fell down, and it slowly reached the floor. Alice suddenly felt pain throbbing in her chest. She understood the meaning of the earlier message about the rose's relevance to her life. The pain was highly disliked by Alice, and she slightly whimpered in pain. Slowly but certainly, the pain subsided, although it rendered Alice weaker than before.

She decided to find the black stickman painting as soon as possible, because she didn't like the idea of this sick hide and seek game. She slowly walked to another pillar, and the same button as before flashed rapidly again. She pressed the button only to reveal a night sky with a crescent moon painting. What surprised and scared Alice at the same time was the suddenly darkened room. It was difficult for her to see anything now, but she didn't give up.

Her slow steps carried her to another pillar which had the same curtain and flashing button. She reluctantly pressed the button and relief surrounded her. This time, she successfully found the black stickman painting. A yellow liquid seeped from the frame and it slowly formed a message.

"_Found me, you get prize."_

"Prize…?" Alice asked to herself, confusedly.

She left the pillars alone because she didn't want to mess with them any longer. A painting of a chef cutting something with a kitchen knife attracted her to look at it, but what attracted her more was a fish tail made of wood. She squatted to pick it up and observed the fish tail.

"What's this? Why do I get the feeling that this thing would help me…?" Alice wondered to herself. Nevertheless, she stuffed the fish head into her pocket and left the room. And then, Alice realized something after she stared at the fish shaped keyhole. She only found the head, and it was missing its tail.

"Well, I believe I need to find the tail."

The adolescent proceeded to the right path, and she saw a bunch of statues in many forms. The lights were on before she entered the room on the right path, but it blinked rapidly and went crazy as soon as Alice was on the room. Her heartbeat was thumping from inside of her chest. A big statue of a head lacking a torso moved. It went to where Alice was.

She was surely paralyzed with fear as soon as the statue's eye glowed red and made its way onto her. Alice was too frightened to even lift a finger. She held her breath to resist the urge to scream as loud as she could. Alice gasped as she heard a loud voice of shattered glass. She looked down as soon as the lights stopped blinking.

Her azure orbs widened when she found a wooden fish tail surrounded by the statue's fragments. She believed that it was the missing head's tail. She slowly approached it, carefully minding the sharp fragments so it wouldn't hurt her or her white rose. The girl picked it up after she squatted, and quickly got up to combine the wooden tail and head.

"Alright, looks like I made it," she said reassuringly to herself with a smile.

She left the room to meet the cat shaped door, and sure enough, the fish shaped keyhole was still intact. Alice slowly pressed the wooden fish onto the keyhole. They were a perfect match. But then, Alice covered her ears as tight as she could because after fitting the key, she was disturbed by a loud voice of meowing cats. The place shook violently, so violent that Alice fell down.

"What happened…?"

Alice was surprised when she found a small straight path. She sensed something bad enough will happen to her beyond that path. Nevertheless, she marched on and was welcomed to the new room dominated by the color yellow.

She made her way onto the left path, but she screamed when she felt someone—or rather a painting spitting at her and her rose. The spit hit her and it wilted one of her rose's petals. She felt a scorching pain on her arm after the silly painting with wiggling tongue spit at her. Fortunately, Alice found a small table with a crystal vase on it, so she decided to put the rose inside it. Her rose magically bloomed again, thus healing her pain.

That was when she was interested in a totally white painting. Her eyes were affixed on a small number on the painting's center. The small number was written in violet, and she noted the number in her mind.

"Nine… I wonder what for?"

She made it to the path on the right side of the room. She found another yellow liquid forming a message, and she read it aloud.

"Beware of lips. What does that mean?"

She marched on until she reached the end of the path. There was a big red lip affixed on the wall. She approached it, only to be creeped out by its speech.

"Hungry… Give me food…"

"Ack!"

The gigantic lips bit her rose petal, and she felt another brand new pain on her body, as if she was bitten by something. By now, Alice had understood the message's meaning, and she ignored the lips. She remembered there were three paths, and she had yet to explore the straight path. Alice decided to do so and on her way, she found a scrap of paper.

"Just when you've forgotten… What is this thing?"

She dropped the paper again and a scary moan surprised her, accompanied with the same shadowy hand as before. Alice screeched out of fear and she passed the hand which looked like it wanted to grab Alice onto the wall so it could kill her anytime.

Alice was scared by the sight of hanged dolls everywhere. With fright filling her body now, she passed the hanged dolls which looked like punished sinners and she was taken aback when one of the dolls fell down from the rope. She noticed something interesting on the doll's clothes. Sure enough, there was a small number colored in green on it.

"Eighteen. I better keep that in mind."

That was when she made her mind to explore the room behind the yellow door she just saw. She slowly turned the knob to open it, and she saw six paintings of women in different colored clothes. There were three of them on the left side of the room, and the rest was located on the right. A big yellow door was in the center of the room. Each of the paintings had yellow liquid beneath them.

"I remember this room was called The Liars' Room, according to the plate I saw before entering this place."

Alice approached the woman in green painting, which was located on the left. The woman said something as if she was really talking to Alice.

"Stand in front of the statue, go west three steps, and south one step. That's the answer!"

Still being unsure as ever, Alice left the painting and headed on to the woman in brown painting, which was just next to the woman in green.

"Stand in front of the statue, go east four steps, and then north two steps. That's the answer!"

"Wha—"

Alice was truly shocked by the different answers from each painting. It scared her so much because she knew this gallery would be filled with traps everywhere, a deadly trap that could take her life anytime they desired. She slowly shook her head and walked to the woman in yellow painting, right next to the brown painting.

"The one in white speaks the truth!" said the yellow painting.

Alice suddenly remembered that this room wasn't called The Liars' Room for nothing. She felt that every statement a painting agreed was a lie. She decided to inspect each painting's words to figure out who spoke the truth. She didn't know if this would work, but she was still uncertain.

She carried herself to the blue painting on the right side of the room. As soon as she approached the woman in blue painting, it spoke to Alice.

"The only truth-speaker wears green!"

"_You lied," _Alice thought as she stared at the painting.

She moved onto the woman in white. Sure enough, she gave Alice some hints which absolutely was a big lie that could kill her.

"Stand in front of the statue, go east two steps, then south two steps. That's the answer!"

Alice decided to inspect the last painting's words. The silhouette woman in red didn't give any tips, but she just agreed with another liar.

"I agree with the one in yellow!"

After that, Alice came to a conclusion: the only truth-speaker wore brown, not other colors. She decided to trust the lady in brown instead, even though her intuition spoke otherwise. She slowly walked to the door in the middle and opened the door. The room was empty, save for the big statue in the center and the tiles on the floor. Alice shut both of her eyes to remember the brown painting's words.

"East four steps, north two steps…"

She headed to the right for four steps after opening her eyes, and turned around so she could head north for two steps. Alice felt a loose tile on her feet. Feeling her actions were right, she pulled the loose tile. It revealed a small number behind it.

"Four. Okay, I think that's—"

_**CRASH!**_

"Eeeek!"

She jumped in shock because she heard a loud shattered glass voice like before, and then a woman's scream could be heard by her. She left the room, and the Liars' Room turned into a room full of mass destruction. It scared her so much. All of the women in the painting, except for the one In brown because she had vanished with red liquid spread over her frame, held different weapons.

"_**Liar! LIAR! Liar!"**_

Feeling sick and nauseous of the room's sight, Alice exited The Liars' Room and soon, she was back with the hanged dolls. She passed the dolls, ignoring them. She soon saw a golden door with a password field that said:

_Enter Password_

_X times X + X = ?_

Each X's were colored differently, and Alice believed that she had to do a little mathematical counting and remember each number's colors. She matched each color clues with the numbers and summed it up after multiplying it.

"One hundred and seventy six. Let's see if I did that correctly," Alice muttered as she entered the number on the field. She heard a small click sound, and she smiled a little when she discovered that the door which was once locked, could be opened now. The next room was full of tree sculptures and there was a painting of an apple at the end of the room.

"Eh? There's a wooden apple hanging on a tree."

She walked forward to reach the wooden apple, and she picked it up. She remembered the lips that bit her was hungry, and she assumed she could use this wooden apple to feed it. As soon as she was done picking up the apple, she felt the same sensation again.

The sensation as if someone was watching her from behind.

Alice quickly turned around to see who was behind her, who had done this to her since she entered this twisted world. She screeched in surprise as she saw a lifeless looking little girl who looked like she was nine years old. The little girl, who was much shorter than the seventeen year old Alice, had straight shoulder-length brown hair, and a pair of bloody crimson eyes. She wore something that looked like school uniform which was full of red.

"Ah… Wh-Who are you? P-Please don't hurt me…!" Alice begged to the girl.

"…I won't. Ib. That's my name."

"Ib, huh…? My name's Alice. Alice Ip. P-Pleased to meet you," Alice replied kindly.

"Visitor?" the girl asked.

"Y-Yes… I'm a visitor of Guertena's gallery. How did I end up coming t-to this world?"

"…This world knows no time, Miss Alice. I've been trapped in this world for such a long time," Ib answered monotonely.

"T-Trapped?! How come?!"

"…When I was close to leaving this world, my dead friend came and he told me the exit was on the other way. I was tricked. He trapped me… He trapped—"

"D-Don't cry… So, you've been looking for an exit, I-Ib?"

"Mm-hm," Ib nodded, "Garry… I didn't know he had died because of me. But he told me that it was Mary's fault."

"Mary? Who's Mary?"

"…You can say she's the ruler of this world. She… She's nothing but a deranged little girl. I remember her saying she wanted to meet the grown-up version of her."

"Grown-up version? C-Care to elaborate?"

"…I must go now. I need to find the exit quickly."

Before Alice could ask any more questions, Ib left, wandering around the Fabricated World to find an exit. Sadly, even though she was adamant enough, her efforts were futile. Once she had turned her back from the exit, she would be in this twisted world forever. Surely Alice didn't want that to happen to her. Alice shuddered a little of the thought that time was something foreign to this crazy world.

Alice felt like she should leave this world quickly before it could do more harm to her mental health. She left the room with the tree sculptures and proceeded to the lips so she could give them the wooden apple. Of course she couldn't eat it, but she thought that the lips could do so.

As soon as she arrived, she put the wooden apple onto the lips. It opened its mouth and began chewing the wooden apple.

"This tasty… I'll let you pass now. Go through my mouth…"

"Eww."

Alice was slightly disgusted when it opened its large mouth so Alice could fit inside. She discarded the nasty thought and made her way out of the brown room by crawling inside the mouth. Unlike what she expected, the journey inside the mouth was short. Shortly after that, she arrived at another room in brown, but this time it was different from the earlier room.

The corridor was filled with neatly lined up paintings of guillotines, showing the process of its cutting through anything. Alice didn't bother the paintings at all. She kept walking and walking until the end of the room, where her intuition told her to move away from the end.

"Aaaaah!"

Alice screamed at the top of her lungs when a guillotine knife fell down so fast that she had little time to move away. Alice barely made it to stay away from the guillotine. Her feet were near the knife that one step closer to the knife would cut her toes. Imagining that just scared her so much. She watched the guillotine slowly rising up to the ceiling, revealing a staircase leading to downstairs. She slowly passed the currently cracked floor because of the guillotine, and Alice's body trembled violently due to her fear. She was afraid of the guillotine because it could murder her before she could leave this world.

And now, she had arrived in another passageway decorated with red. She continued walking until she found a painting of a golden trumpet with pink gas surrounding it. The painting was entitled Breath, according to the painting's name plate. She admired the painting for a while before continuing her journey. Alice then turned around and walked until the end of the passageway, where there was another vase filled with water and a red door.

The new crimson room didn't scare her as much as the other rooms did. In fact, it managed to calm Alice down for a while with its sculptures and painting. Even though the first two sculptures that welcomed her entrance into this red room were abstract, she could still admire it because Alice somehow felt they had some deep meaning beneath their unique appearance, which looked like two women in blue and red respectively melting.

A painting which looked like electrocardiograph that instantly reminded her of the hospital scenes in movies she had watched before with her friends, be it with Emi or her teammates. As soon as she approached it and read its name plate out loud, the graph came to life, as if it showed someone's stable heartbeat, but then quickly formed a straight line back to its original form. Alice then left the left edge of the room and headed straight to the right side.

This time, she saw a painting of a beautiful woman with brown hair, and red dress. She also had the same eyes as her crimson dress. Alice thought that this painting might be one of them which weren't based on real people, since the person on the painting she saw was too beautiful to be real. She looked down to read the painting's title plate beneath it.

"Lady in Red," she muttered slowly before turning her back. When she was two steps away from that painting, there was a loud crash that surely could deafen her ears before she could know it. It sounded so disturbing that it provoked Alice's fright to emerge and dominate over her.

What shocked her wasn't the Lady in Red painting which came to life, but her sudden change of demeanor. She swore the lady in that painting smiled beautifully and gently before it came to life, but her face quickly turned deranged and psychotic, like she wanted to maim Alice after disturbing her. But she was just taking a look at her.

"Aaaah!"

Alice screamed as loud as she could when the crawling lady ran after her much faster than she expected. The blue haired girl ran around the room, sometimes to hide from the maniacal painting or escape from her. Her eyes lit up when she found a red door in the middle of the room, but when she found out the door was locked, her heart was thumping inside her chest as if it was begging for Alice to take it out from her chest due to her fear.

"I-I… I don't want to die before leaving this place…!"

She ran away from the door because the lady in red was heading towards her with her creepy smile. And now, Alice didn't care where her feet carried her, as long as she could get out of this room quickly. Nonchalantly she ran to where once the Lady in Red painting had been hung before it chased Alice. Just as she expected, the floor was filled with glass fragments, but an unexpected red key near the shattered glass somehow managed to revive Alice's bravery.

Alice bowed down a little in order to pick up the small crimson key, and the lady in red seemed to be running after her. She faced the wall and ran to the locked door. Her sweaty hand used the key to unlock the door, and when Alice arrived at the other room, she sighed in relief as the psychotic painting didn't run after her anymore.

"M-Maybe she can't open doors on her own…"

And then, she was welcomed by lined up bookshelves. She wasn't the bookworm type, but she didn't hate books either. She approached one of the bookshelves and picked up a moving storybook that seemed to be children storybook. It had been a while since she read storybooks. She was seventeen years old now, and to top everything off, she had busy schedule as a pop idol.

"Carrie The Careless and Galette des Rois?" She read the book's title aloud to herself, having slight difficulties pronouncing the Galette des Rois words. The book instantly piqued her curiosity and she opened the book to read its first page.

The illustration seemed to be drawn by a little child with crayon since the art looked messy. As far as she could understand, this story tells about a little girl named who made a Galette des Rois with her friends in order to celebrate her friend, Carrie's special day-presumably her birthday. Alice giggled at the thought of making something special for a friend's birthday since she had always wanted to do that with hers. Alice kept on reading until the part where she told her birthday friend Carrie that if she ate a slice with a coin inside it, she would be blessed with happiness.

"My, that was sweet," she wondered to herself.

Moving on, Carrie and her friends ate the cake after one of them divided the cake with a kitchen knife, but suddenly they were interrupted with Carrie's groan. She asked Carrie what was the matter, and she answered she had swallowed something hard. She reassured her friend by saying she just swallowed the small coin inside the cake. Later on, her friend decided to clean up the plate, only to find her gloomy mother later on when she arrived at in front of the study's entrance.

"Huh? Why is her mother so sad?" Alice asked the question to herself.

And then, the girl who made the cake asked her saddened mother the cause of her gloom, and she answered she couldn't find the key to the study, and if her husband found out the key was missing, he would be so angry. The little girl was shocked to see the key was missing from the table where it had always been put on. Instead, she saw the coin which was supposed to be used for the Galette des Rois. Alice was horrified when she came to a conclusion that Carrie might have swallowed the key to the study. Her eyes widened in fear, alongside the girl in the storybook's shock.

The girl accidentally dropped the knife, and she pondered to herself that she might be just as careless as Carrie, her friend. She picked up the knife and the red curtain closed the stage. Alice could hear a scream from the book and her hands were now trembling due to her fright. She couldn't believe that the girl killed her own friend just to retrieve a key.

"I found the key! Now open the door!" The girl, who was now bathed in blood after murdering her friend, said that in front of Alice's eyes, holding a blood covered key. She disappeared from sight and the story ended. Alice was silent. The young blue haired girl was speechless and scared at the same time because of the twisted children story she read just now. Her mouth was too heavy to say anything, and she couldn't trust her sight just now.

"N-No, I should move on..." She muttered.

There was a soft sound from somewhere, and the door at the end of the room was unlocked. And now, Alice had arrived at a new room with a painting of a crystal vase and a trickle of water just above it. Thanks to the title plate beneath the painting, she could know the title of the calming painting: Eternal Blessing.

She proceeded to the vase which was full of water and she felt like her hope for survival was refilled once again. Alice put her white rose inside the vase and it bloomed, healing Alice's bite wound that was caused by the lips in the yellow room. Then, her eyes caught a painting of a crystal face and a trickle of water right above the vase. She noticed the painting was entitled Eternal Blessing, thanks to the title plate beneath the calming painting.

Alice turned around to see there were two small paths at the end of the red room. She decided to go left first to see whether she made the right decision or not. If the path turned out to be dangerous, she could escape anytime to the right path. Alice walked slowly to the left and she found herself at another red room with two staircases, and between them stood a door and a clean window. The first staircase on the right led to a notice and a vase. The young idol didn't feel it was necessary for her to heal herself since she had done it just now before entering this room. That was when she decided to venture to the left end of the room.

The teenager was surprised when she found a wall that was missing a painting called Lady in Black, according to the title plate. There were black petals scattered everywhere on the ground until she stood in front of the aforementioned door, where there was none. Alice's azure eyes widened in fear when she realized that someone's rose was torn and she was brave to bet that whoever owned that rose must be in great pain.

Alice was curious of what was behind the door, but she didn't know the saying 'curiosity kills the cat'. She just opened the door and entered the small room. She took two steps, but she suddenly felt like someone was watching her from afar and the scattered black petals were there again on the floor, everywhere in the room.

Who knew that from this point on, she would meet someone that could change her life? Someone who owned the torn black rose.

* * *

**A/N: I'm really sorry for the late update because I had short period of writer's block before getting to the point where the main pairing will be introduced, and spoiling you guys some of this story's element by the scene in that yellow room :p I told you I'd keep my promise! A surprise is a surprise, though, but I hope you're still reading this story because on the 4****th**** chapter, I will introduce the main pairing of this fanfic. Yes, yes. You can expect some fluff if you ship them ^^**

**Thank you for sparing your time to read this story, and as always, reviews, critiques, and even flames are truly appreciated by me! :D**

**~Zelosahiko**


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